Dragonhaven, by Robin McKinley
pros: well-written; well-developed idea of what if dragons were real and how it would work out realistically; details of National Park, Native Americans’ role, and legends; believable characters and situations; complete story in one book; the dragons’ names; hero has hispanic last name but is not a stereotype, it’s just his name
cons: dragged a little; ending felt rushed; conflict details felt choppy but this may be result of first-person POV; annoying little girl was a true brat; what happened to the mother remained a mystery
misc: caves; burns; fate; walkie-talkies; radios; feds; poachers; tour busses; Smokehill National Park; Jake Mendoza; Lois (the baby dragon)
ISBN 0399246754; 272pp; pub. 2007
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Nameless Magery, by Delia Marshall Turner
pros: fun story; likable heroine; good twists on old elements; fast-moving story; some great characters; interesting explanation of magic and different ways of “seeing” it
cons: Lisane makes some foolish choices that seem inconsistent with her general character; details can be sketchy and sometimes seem inconsistent; I would have likes to have more details at the end
misc: seeing magic; ller and Lle; Kahain; kings; wizards; school for mages; mage school; Detter; neck bands
ISBN 0345424301; 240pp; pub. 1998
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Alpha, by Catherine Asaro
pros: interesting story idea; interesting characters, especially Alpha; dogfight; Jamie (grandaughter); future technologies, esp. nanomedicine
cons: sometimes stilted writing style; contrived plot at times, esp. attacks on the general’s life and Charon’s return; doubt about Sunrise Alley; ending was coy; androids and machine intelligences are more interesting than people or plot; doesn’t discuss what seems like an obvious problem – if you get your neural pathways transferred to an android’s body, don’t you still die? The immortal android is just a copy of the original. If you don’t die, which one is the real you?
misc: General; prodigy; self-determination; self-programming; love; courage; F-42; Banshee; fighter pilot; mesh; nanotechnology; android; robot army; nanomedicines; cardiac arrest; angina; aging; evolution of artificial intelligence; sequel to Sunrise Alley
ISBN 1416520813; 288pp; pub. 2006
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When True Night Falls, by C.S. Friedman
pros: good series; question of good vs. evil and if evil can ever be justified when used to combat evil and the question of redemption; the great endeavor started by the prophet shows signs of fruition; more is revealed about Tarrant’s motivation; Hesseth; Jenseny; the sea voyage; Jenseny’s solution
cons: Damien’s angst gets old fast; not enough details about the Iezu and the evil that fuels Tarrant’s magic; Hesseth’s fate and the timing of her fate; the Matria’s stranglehold on power was a little unbelievable; the troubled future, especially for the Rakh; what was the fate of the merchants?
misc: Coldfire Trilogy; Undying prince; Karril; Calesta; Siza; black lands; crystal; trees that suck the life out of you with their roots; horses; body kept alive in vat; deep dungeon in lava caverns; the “light” that Jenseny can see; “invisible” dagger
ISBN 0756403162; 560pp; pub. 2005
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Wolf Who Rules, by Wen Spencer
pros: sequel to Tinker; we learn more about Elvish society and the importance of their presence near Pittsburg; we learn a lot more about Windwolf and his household; the friction between human society and the elves; Tinker’s evolving personality; the dream elements; the dragons; the Tengu; this one is a lot more complex than Tinker; good action, believable situations and characters; Tinker’s evolving relationship with Pony and Stormsong; the political situations; the paparazzi and the elves’ reaction; Pony and Stormsong; Tinker’s reaction when watching The Wizard of Oz movie.
cons: Nathan’s fate; Esme’s role; Lain doesn’t appear very much; Tooloo’s role is in question
misc: Oni; Tengu; Riki; quantum physics; ghostland; Alice in Wonderland; Wizard of Oz; Vicereine
ISBN 1416520554; 368pp; pub. 2006
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Chimera, by Will Shetterly
pros: Well-written futuristic detective novel; Chase “Max” Maxwell; the Infinite pocket; Zoe Domingo (jaguar chimera); good plot, good action, believable situations; Mycroft; futuristic details; world with chimera everywhere; Max251’s hospital stays; the future’s version of recycling; in retrospect, Max’s reactions to Kris Doyle’s taste and smell during their lovemaking marathon; Max’s self-image as a “knight in grimy white armor”
cons: hard to tell if Zoe was very smart or if she was just impulsive; chimera rights and AI rights completely replace issues of civil rights for other minorities but their status never gets explained super androids role in police and high society isn’t as well-explained as it should have been; a megalomaniac like Chain probably wouldn’t have liked having so many copies of himself floating around since he wouldn’t be able to centrally control them all; final showdown was a too explosively violent for their survival to be believable, but it was cool
misc: AIs; gene-splicing; indentured servitude; Little Angels; gambling; Crittertown; riot
ISBN 031287543; 285pp; pub. 2001
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Sunrise Alley, by Catherine Asaro
pros: fast-paced; interesting premise and situations that illustrate dilemma; futuristic technology; likable AI entities; questions of age differences; Turner’s story; from Baen’s free library
cons: a bit too much detail in sexual interactions between Turner and Samantha; weak romance – it seemed contrived to drive the point of humanity of an AI/EI; apparent omnipotence of Charon (bad guy) was convenient, his failures were also very convenient; overall the story felt rushed
misc: electronically augmented clothing; orbital jets; underground community of machine intelligences, androids, and robots; military
ISBN 1416520791; 448 pages; pub. 2006
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Black Sun Rising, by C.S. Friedman
pros: fast-paced; well-written; interesting characters and world; interesting conflicts of good vs. evil and if evil can ever be used for good; Damien; Hesseth; the way religion is presented; this feels a lot more like SF than fantasy; the fear of a world with no fae
cons: characters can be very self-absorbed; Zen’s story felt incomplete; Damien’s sort of maudlin “love” for Ciani (Cee) seems out of character and contrived as a plot device – the real story is Damien and Tarrant’s relationship, with Cee as a pivotal part of that relationship
misc: fae; dark fae; Rakh; The Hunter; Neocount; Patriarch; Calesta; the forest; worms; crossbow; holy fire; caves; Coldfire Trilogy
ISBN 0756403146; 494pp; pub. 2005
Cry of Justice, by Jason Pratt
pros: thoughtful author; good ideas and situations; some very likeable characters; lots of things happening; Seifas
cons: special terms were too similar to Spanish or Latin words and felt awkward; a bit preachy or pedantic; some characters were annoying; choppy rhythm due to use of journal entries and alternating POV; too many descriptions and explanations – the story would have been shorter and the flow would have worked better with less dissertation
misc: Seifas; Jian; Portunista; philosophical; redemption; responsibility; really big birds; mysterious origin/purpose of good guy (Jian)
ISBN 0977888401; 480pp; pub. 2007
Archangel Protocol, by Lyda Morehouse
pros: fast-paced, exciting story; unusual spin on familiar angel idea; likable characters; interesting world and premise (Medusa bomb, glass city, mutated humans); Mouse’s AI; use of AI as a character; virtual angels; LINK society and unLINKed computing and people; excellent, unusual series; each title in series has different viewpoint
cons: Michael was a little annoying; didn’t like the ending; religions as evil or bad guy; unsatisfying resolution to virtual angels threat; Out of print
ISBN 0451458273; 352 pp; 2001
The Paradox Men, by Charles Harness
pros: fast-paced; clever; interesting premise
cons: some predictable elements, maybe because it’s an older book; female seemed weak to me although she was probably intended to be a strong female
AISN (The Paradox Men: B000KP8N8G, 1992) ISBN (Rings: 1886778167, 1999)
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